New Post: Cycling is Therapeutic.

c2011Shalako


I injured my right knee back in August of 2009. I did it swimming, which shouldn't be possible, at least for a fit or even a slightly younger person. A normal flutter kick shouldn't do that to you. It might have something to do with my doggy-paddling style, a sort of one-armed stroke designed to keep my smoke up out of the water.

With a few weeks of downtime, and autumn fast approaching, I didn't get too many kilometres of cycling in that year.

I never walk farther than about a kilometre, incidentally.

Along rolls 2010 and I was re-writing my first two novels, editing, reading, learning social networking, and editing...I've been in this chair pretty much continously for about a year and a half. That is to say when I wasn't sleeping, or eating, or taking a shower. Shoveling snow. You get the idea.

So last year, instead of cycling two or three thousand kilometres over the summer, it was more like...I don't know, maybe 600 k's all year.

Today I took my second bike ride of the season. I wore two shirts and two sweaters. The first couple of kilometres did hurt my right knee. My upper back and shoulders, my arms, my elbows, my wrists...my lower back and everything else.

After a while the pain went away and my wind wasn't as bad as I expected. The upper legs burn of course.

I felt eager. I really didn't put much power to it, but the right knee felt okay. I only went about five kilometres, and it was a nice spring day. 'No worries.'

It's not a matter of 'owing it to myself' or anything like that. My right foot is numb half the time and I now walk with a very distinct limp...this is a new thing for me and I don't like it very much. I need a new office chair something fierce.

Cycling is a necessity after all this time at my desk. In my opinion, my productivity and creativity will actually improve. Summer is for the living.

Cycling is for me.